1 comment:

I'd like you to take a look at this great orthodox and traditional Irish Catholic blog. They've just posted about a retreat to a Cistercian monastery. looks like something you could tell your readers about and maybe link to or blogroll...

Pax et Gaudium

O.S.B. Vocation Awareness

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Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B.

The Abbot who is worthy to be over a monastery, ought always to be mindful of what he is called, and make his works square with his name of Superior. For he is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery. (RB, Chapter 2)

ORA ET LABORA

Follow St. Vincent on Facebook

Become a member of the St. Vincent Archabbey Vocation Facebook page. (Click on Facebook picture for link)

Guidance Summary Form

Please take a moment to fill out this short guidance summary form if you would like to make a visit to the Archabbey (this is not an application and all information is kept stictly confidential) - Click on monk for link!!!

Meet Our Founder, Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.

"Let us meet one another there under the cross where we will always discover new courage and gather fresh hope."

Working the radio station, "We Are One Body" (WAOB)

Click on this picture to go to the WAOB Website

Art from the Monastery

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Pittsburgh Steelers Camp

Fr. Paul Taylor, O.S.B.

His Holiness Pope Francis

Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to Your shepherd, the Pope, a spirit of courage and right judgement, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he, as successor to the apostle Peter and vicar of Christ, build Your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Click picture to read the Life of St. Benedict

Admirable Saint and Doctor of Humility, you practiced what you taught, assiduously praying for God's glory and lovingly fulfilling all work for God and the benefit of all human beings. You know the many physical dangers that surround us today often caused or occasioned by human inventions. Guard us against poisoning of the body as well as of mind and soul, and thus be truly a "Blessed" one for us. Amen.

Excerpts from the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict

Let the monks, therefore, practice this zeal with most ardent love; namely, that in honor they forerun one another (cf Rom 12:10). Let them bear their infirmities, whether of body or mind, with the utmost patience; let them vie with one another in obedience. Let no one follow what he thinketh useful to himself, but rather to another. Let them practice fraternal charity with a chaste love. Let them fear God and love their Abbot with sincere and humble affection; let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and my He lead us all together to life everlasting. (RB, Chapter 72)

"Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ" (Holy Rule, Chapter 72)

My God, I offer You all my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the intentions for which He pleads and offers Himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in thanksgiving for Your favors, in reparation for my sins, and in humble supplication for my temporal and eternal welfare, for the needs of our holy Mother the Church, for the conversion of sinners, and for the relief of the poor souls in purgatory.

Monastic quartet

"I am firmly convinced that a monastic school, which does not strive to advance art as much as science and religion, will be deficient in its work.’” (+Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.)

The Jubilee Medal of St. Benedict (Commisioned by Boniface Krug, OSB - Monk of St. Vincent)

Read more about the Medal of St. Benedict (Click on Picture)

Service

Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well." (John 13: 8-9)

FUGA MUNDI

The Patron of our Abbey - St. Vincent DePaul (Click on his picture to read more about him)

O Glorious Saint Vincent de Paul, The mention of your name, Suggests a litany of your virtues: Humility, zeal, mercy, self-sacrifice. It also recalls Your many foundations: Works of Mercy, Congregations, Societies. The Church gratefully remembers, Your promotion of the priesthood. Inspire all Charitable Workers, Especially those who minister, To both the spiritually And the materially poor. O Lord, give us the grace, That You bestowed upon, Your servant St. Vincent de Paul, To relinquish the temptation, Of material things, In our holy effort, To minister to the poor. Amen.

St. Scholastica

God, to show us where innocence leads, you made the soul of your virgin Saint Scholastica soar to heaven like a dove in flight. Grant through her merits and her prayers that we may so live in innocence as to attain to joys everlasting. This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mother of Monks

Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and thanks for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent! Receive our gratitude, and by your prayers obtain the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to make our peace with God. Holy Mary, help the miserable, strengthen the discouraged, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God. May all who venerate you feel now your help and protection. Be ready to help us when we pray, and bring back to us the answers to our prayers. Make it your continual concern to pray for the people of God, foryou were blessed by God and were made worthy to bear the Redeemer of the world, who lives and reigns forever. Amen. - Saint Augustine of Hippo

Pray the Holy Rosary

One of the best prayers for young men considering a call to the Monastic life is the rosary. Mary, the Queen of all Monks, leads all people who ask for her intercession to her only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ!!!

The Divine Presence

We believe that God is present everywhere and that the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the bad in every place. (RB, Chapter 19)

Leander Schnerr, O.S.B. (Third Archabbot of St. Vincent)

He completed construction of the present-day Archabbey Basilica despite difficult economic times, and he helped to establish the National Benedictine Education Association. He served from 1892 to 1918.

interior Basilica 1958

Early Monks

Some of our early confreres posing for a picture in their cuculla's (a pleated gown presented to monks and nuns at Solemn Profession)

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Fr. Prior Earl, OSB celebrates the Holy Eucharist for our community.

Benedictine House of Studies in Rome

Church of Sant'Anselmo

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow...we must not trust in our own virtues. - Saint Gregory the Great, from Be Friends of God

Prayer for Saint Bernard Tolomei's Intercession

Lord our God, through blessed abbot Bernard, you enriched Your Church with a new form of monastic observance. Strengthened by his help and example may we gain the good things prepared for those who believe in You. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Saint Romuald

All that I seek to know on earth is Christ, The power of his resurrected life, To share the suff'rings that he bore for me, Thus shall I triumph over death and strife. So Romuald, the solitary man, Became a living icon of his Lord, In prayer and self-denial formed his monks And molded them within the silent Word. O Father, Son, and Spirit ever blessed, We raise our hearts in silence and in praise! With Romuald and all the heav'nly choir, We praise you, Lord of Life, for all our days!

Saint Romuald (founder of the Camaldolese Benedictines)

"Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who taste nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings to him." -from Brief Rule of St. Romuald

St. Sharbel...Pray for us!

St. Sharbel, although not a Benedictine, was a Maronite Monk and provides a great example of monastic perserverence.